Cursed by the Law

The title of our little talk today is Cursed by the Law. So, Jim read, we're doing 10, 11, and 12 today. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, but for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

Now that no one is justified, get this figured out, Now that no one is justified by law before God is evident for the righteous man shall live by faith. However, the law is not a faith. On the contrary, he who practiced them shall live by them. Most of this quote comes from Deuteronomy 27, 26, where it says, cursed is he who does not confirm the words of the law by doing them. And all the people said, Amen, okay. So what is a person living under the law system also living under? He's also living under a curse.

You would think that maybe, maybe I would derive some benefit by finding out what the rules are, just tell me what to do and I'll do it, but it's not so. So let's talk a little bit about a law system, a definition. Any set of standards, principles, rules, promises, criteria, or objectives, a person tries to keep in order, or tries to follow in order to do several things. One, to be acceptable to God.

Problem with that is Ephesians 1.6 says, to the praise of his glory and his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Or I might be doing all of that to be more righteous before God than I am right now.

Paul says in Galatians 2.21, I do not nullify the grace of God because if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. or I might be wanting to be pleasing to God.

In Matthew 3.17, it says, behold, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. The Father is pleased with one, and that's Christ. Or maybe I wanna be more like Christ, and if I do these certain things, I will be more like Christ.

Well, the one verse in the word that talks about how you get to be like Christ is 2 Corinthians 3.18, Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.

What's the mirror? It's the Word of God. What happens? I'm being transformed Transfigured into the same image from glory to glory even as from this by the Spirit of the Lord So the transformation into the image of Christ is not done by works. It's done by beholding Christ and his glory or maybe I'm I want to live the Christian life better.

I want to do it really right. And when I was first a Christian, I wasn't a Christian more than three or four days, and a guy came up and handed me a book and he said, now that you're a Christian, here's what you do. Right? I thought, oh, I thought I just got away from that.

Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.

And in John 15.5 is probably where the, The real issue is, the Lord Jesus said, I'm the vine, and you're the branches.

I'm the vine, you're the branches. Now if you know anything about plants, the life is in the vine, and it flows through the branches out to the fruit. The branches don't have anything to do with the life, other than being a conduit through which it flows. He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The problem I've always seen with Christians is that they're like this, and they're to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, and so here they are, and the life is flowing through them out to the fruit. You know what they do? They peek. They wanna see how the fruit's going. As soon as you do that, the lifeline is cut off. Here's the problem, instead of being blessed, I'm gonna sit down, hope you don't mind. Instead of being blessed by their acts and putting themselves under law, men put themselves under a curse.

Now, I wanna talk a little bit about a curse, because we have this idea that a curse is a bunch of bad stuff that's gonna happen to us, you know? Curse this and curse that and you're really in for a lot of trouble. A curse in this sense just means you don't get the blessing. You're withdrawing the blessing that comes with faith and with grace. If you live under law, that's what you miss, and that's called a curse. And we don't think a lot about that, because we think, well, we're not being proactively hammered by God, but look what we're missing.

The curse of the law system means to ban someone from enjoying something. That's really what a curse is. It's an opposition to the blessing or the gift. So it's being banned from the very blessings and objectives that the law system was really trying to attain.

I put in here a long list from Deuteronomy 28, but it's way too long to read, but it's really interesting. It goes through a bunch of verses. It says, blessed shall you be. Blessed shall you be your offspring. Blessed shall be your basket. Blessed shall be, blessed shall be.

And then you get a little farther down and it starts talking about what happens if you don't abide by the rules. All the blessings go away. That's the curse, is the blessings go away. So the curse of the law comes down from the mosaic system and it applies to any law system that man sets up to be more pleasing to God.

Now I realize that within our hearts there is this desire to be as pleasing or more pleasing to God at any given time. An illustration would be, Let's say I set up a system of performance where I'm going to be more loving this week. Or maybe I'll be more forgiving. Or maybe more patient. Or I'm going to be less angry. That's a good one. Or less critical. I'm going to be a lot less critical this week than I was last week. Maybe a little less prideful too.

You know what the problem with that is? is that I'm banned if I engage in that activity. I am banned from enjoying every one of the blessings that God would give me just by living by faith. That's the curse. Only Christ and his life through me can fulfill those objectives. So if I need more patience, it isn't the patience I need, I need more of Christ. If I need to be less critical, I don't need to be less, I need the Lord Jesus to be manifesting his life through me, because that's the life, and that's how it functions, and that's where the blessings are attached.

Now, we spent a lot of time talking about these guys called the Judaizers. They're bad guys, right? They maintained that the knowledge of the law entitled them to the blessings which were attached to the sons of Abraham. That's what they said. Our Lord said to the representative of the system in John 539, he says, look, you constantly search the scriptures, and in them you think you have eternal life. And they're thinking, yeah, that's what we're doing.

He says, but they testify of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. So what is eternal life? a jar or a refrigerator list that tells you all the things to do? No, it's real simple. Eternal life is to know the Lord Jesus and the Father. They are eternal life. Eternal life is a person, not a system.

So what was, I gotta keep up with this, what was the big sin that Israel committed? What was their biggest problem? I think it was they were ignoring the righteousness of God, who was Christ, and going about to establish their own righteousness. That's what they did, and that's what they were really trying to be good at.

So Paul argues against that and says, on the contrary, Israel has, by its attempts to be justified by the law, brought in the curse of the broken law, for no man can keep it. The curse is not merely the wrath of God in the form of final banishment to the sinners, as I've said before, from his presence, but it's the sorrow and misery which it includes by not being able to live up to it. It represents a present condition of alienation from God. Maybe you look at it this way.

I thought a long time ago, you know, God is broadcasting to me on channel four, grace, and I'm on seven. Why don't I get it? Cause seven has given me the rules, four is sending me the grace. I better be on the same channel. Grace, grace, grace. So I don't want to be banned from every blessing and every objective that I'm trying to attain to. The problem is if I go after it from a law standpoint, I don't get any of it. And that's the curse. Okay.

Now, if you look at the verses, it says the word continues to abide in all things is a figurative expression. And it has to do with the law prescribed. Is it like a district or a domain in which one remains or out of which one goes? Putting oneself under a law system is really subtle. We do it all the time. How many times have you said to somebody, well, just tell me what to do and I'll do it. You know what you're saying? Give me a law.

And it's so pervasive throughout Christianity today. You go into any Christian bookstore and I would guarantee that 95, 6, 7% of all the books there are based on how to. How do I do this? How do I become more spiritual? How do I live this Christian life? And you hear it in teaching. Turn on those Christian channels, and they're giving you the how-tos. They're giving you laws. Now, they may have softened them up with a little holy water, but that's what you're getting, is legalism. In counseling today, and in exhortation today, what are you getting?

A system, a set of rules that if you abide by them, you won't have this, but you will have this. But that isn't what God's Word teaches. So essentially what's being taught is the same message that was taught in the Reformation. The Reformation was you can be justified by faith. You can be saved. Martin Luther started it. You can be justified, you can be sanctified, I'm sorry, sanctified by faith, but you must be sanctified or your Christian life has to be under a struggle. In the Reformation, they were taught justification by faith and sanctification through a law system. They never got away from the law. The biggest problem with the Reformation is that they left Paul out of the equation, and he's the grace guy.

We have discovered so far in this study of Galatians, which has been so good for me, you don't realize this, but if God calls you to be a teacher, go for it. You know why? You get to spend all this cool time with the Lord learning. It's just really a neat thing.

The Christian life is not regulated by law, but it's lived by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That's how it's lived. The Christian life is not rules, but it's a person, the Lord Jesus. There's a lot of good Christian men today that are ignorantly put believers under a law system. They give them what to do. They tell you how to live the Christian life.

You can begin the Christian life by faith and go back to a law system. What have you done? You've denied Christianity at its very essence, at its very core. So, Instead of producing blessing and freedom under a system of do's and don'ts, you really end up in bondage.

And the believer stays in the flesh. The man in the flesh and the law go together. You understand that? The man in the flesh and the law go together. And guess what? The cross was the end of both. It was the end of the man in the flesh and it was the end of the law. And those of you who are legal beagles, that's a scary thing. Wow, what am I gonna do now? Maybe I'm gonna be forced to live by faith, maybe.

So an expanded translation is, for as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it stands written, cursed is everyone who is not remaining constantly in all things which stand written in the book of the law in order to do them. Obeying the law is like trying to live with a tempered glass, piece of tempered glass.

You ever broke a piece of tempered glass? What happens to it? It goes into a jillion pieces. Good luck in putting that back together. It's a thousand little pieces, but the law says you gotta keep them all. Every single one of them, you break one, you broke them all.

So verse 11, now that no one is justified by the law before or in the sight of God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. So by the law in the Greek means that in the law or corresponding to the book of the law. The man in this verse who does not continue in this sphere of the law, where are we again? We're back under the curse. And the man who attempts to remain in the sphere of the law by obeying it is not justified in the sight of God.

He's not. For the reason that justification you only get it one way, by faith. That's it. So in this verse, you really have two men. You have the no man, no one is justified, and then you have the man of faith. And under the no man, who lives under law, he can't be justified. Not a single one of those men ever get justified. The man of faith shall live by faith, having been brought into the right standing with God.

Only God is righteous. He's the only one. In his very essence, he's righteous. Therefore, he is the source of all righteousness, all of it. Therefore, he alone can impute righteousness or give it to somebody. He alone can bring a man into a right standing before him. He's the only one that can do that. He alone sets the criteria and the standard for righteousness.

So what's the criteria? It's faith in the person and work of Christ. That's it, that's the criteria. To be declared by God to be righteous is a once and forever thing. When he does it, it's done. Our position in Christ can never, ever change. Your condition can be all over the place, but your position before Christ and before God never, never changes. I'll get to that, I went ahead of myself.

This verse tells us that by no means of any law or law system can you be justified. The requirements of any law system can't give one the position of God's righteousness. Jim read back that, you go back as far as verse six, even so Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, all nations will be blessed in you, all of them.

So the reason why obedience to a law system can't justify the sinner is the sinner can't deal with his own sinfulness. He cannot obey himself out of his guilt of sinfulness. He can't do it. Only the blood of Christ can do that. For the blood means a death happened and a death took place to take care of the wages of sin. It says in Romans that the wages of sin is death. But the free gift, the free gift of God is Jesus Christ, the free gift. So we can't pay for our own sins.

God declares the believing sinner righteous on the basis of the fact that Christ met the requirements that God demanded, that his righteousness demanded of the law, which we broke, but we couldn't fix it. So Christ becomes the man who is the very righteousness of God. And when you and I believed in him, what happened? The Holy Spirit put us in Christ. So what do we have? We have the righteousness of God in Christ. You see that? That's different than saying, well, he imputed something to me. No, what he did was, is he put us in Christ, and we enjoy all of the benefits that Christ has before the Father. He's the one that God is well pleased with.

So, in the sight of God, before and in the presence of God, as opposed to the sight of men, we should care and do care about how God views us and not how other men view us. Unbelieving men will never be in the presence of God by doing any kind of work, won't happen. However, an unbelieving man will appear at some point in the presence of God, but it won't be for anything other than condemnation. I wouldn't be looking forward to that day. At the Great White Throne, there's gonna be open some books. And one of the most important books is gonna be the Word of God. And in that book is gonna be John 12, 47 and 48.

If anyone hears my saying and does not keep them, I don't judge him. For I didn't come to judge the world, but I came to save it. He who rejects me does not receive my sayings and has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. God's word will judge every one of non-believers the last day.

And it isn't gonna be how the works work out for you. It's who is this man, the Lord Jesus. You know, God is infinitely fair by doing this because during a man's life, God will never force anyone to believe. He won't do that. Forcing him would show him that he didn't love them. Loving a person means that God loves all unbelievers and he draws them. And he says, if you believe me, I will give you my righteousness. So the issue is never your sins, never. It's always the work and the person of the Lord Jesus, always that.

So, what's evident in verse 11? It says, it's evident. And this means, what's clear to my mind? What makes a lot of sense here? The statement that follows should be very clear and understandable in the light of the previous statements. The just man shall live by faith. The one whom God has declared righteous, he who was declared by faith how he is to live. So we start with faith, we live by faith. We never get away from that. We live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. We trust him. So, shall live, now it's interesting. The verse says that everyone shall live by faith.

You know, in Greek, every verb has three tenses. You know what the tense is? Active, passive, and middle. Active is, I hit the ball. Passive is, the ball hit me. The middle voice is, I am really, really involved in the action. I'm like Nolan Aronado standing up at the plate, and here it comes, and I hit it out of the park. I'm involved in the action. What do you think this is? Active voice, passive voice, or middle voice? It's middle.

We are involved by faith intensely with the results of living by faith. Intensely involved, which I think is really cool. What's the result? Why does God do it that way? Because it is the thing that glorifies him. It's the thing that manifests his intrinsic attributes to everybody. We're to live by the very same principle that God has declared us righteous.

Colossians 2.6, one of my favorite verses, says, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, done, so walk in him. What's complicated about that? Nothing. How did I receive him? By faith. How am I supposed to live? By faith. Notice the logic here. It's really logical how Paul does things. A man's work cannot bring him into a right standing with or before God. No law system can do that. Start with that.

Number two, he obtains that right standing only by faith in what God has provided by his grace. Number three, therefore the righteous one is to live by the same principle that God used to declare him righteous at the beginning, faith. with the object to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2.20, again, one of our favorite verses, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I that live in the flesh, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, which he's talking about everybody in this room, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So the just man describes a man is used in a legal rather than an ethical term. The just man, it refers to the man approved of God and accepted on the basis of his faith, not the man's character as exhibited in what he does. You're accepted on the basis of faith. And the word shall live refers to In its context, it's not an impartation of a new or divine life which produces a new experience, but it's the act of God in justifying the man. He lives in a new relationship that God being accepted, that relationship to God that being accepted in the beloved. On Wednesday, or Tuesday, Men's Bible Study, we're going through Ephesians, and it's another one of those books that I keep going back to the same verses all the time, because some of them are just, Ephesians 1, 3, and 4.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, now listen to this, who has blessed us with 85% of the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, right? How about 91%? All. has already done it, blessed us. Here's the reason, the next verse. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, and here's why, that you and I would be holy and blameless before him in love. Now think about what God has done. He has done all of this so that everybody in this room can be before him for all eternity, holy and blameless, and just hang out with him. And you're totally accepted there. The God of the universe has put you there for his happiness and yours. But he wanted to do it. He wanted to do it.

And a law system cannot accomplish that. So expand the translation, but that in the sphere of a law, no one is being justified in the sight of God is clear because the righteous man shall live by means of faith. Verse 12. However, the law is not a faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them.

The law is not a faith means that the two principles of law and faith as a means of justification are mutually exclusive. They cannot mix. They're like oil and water. The essential natures of the principle of law does not require the principle of faith. It requires work. Get to work. They are like oil and water. They are diametrically opposed to each other. Two flights at DIA, both of them saying on the thing, we're headed to glory. One fight is law, the other's grace. When they take off, they go in opposite directions.

So the law can't get us there. that means that there is righteousness that a human being could accrue to himself. That means that righteousness by a perfect man could accrue to himself if he were to obey the law. Let's just say he could. I think about, you know, kiddingly talk about different guys who say, well, let's assume you could keep the law, okay? A thing which a fallen human being can't do, but let's just assume you can.

You're perfect, you're sinless, and you can keep all the laws. But the righteousness that you've obtained would be what? It would be self-righteousness. You would go before God and say, look what I've done. I obeyed your law. Aren't I terrific? God says, that's well, that's good, nice going, but it isn't my righteousness. Oh.

So the latter, by faith, what do you get by trusting God and believing him? You get his righteousness, not your own. Who would want your own anyway? Under the legal and actions of the Mosaic law, this could be the futile attempt by a sinner to work out under the law righteousness which God could approve. He'd approve you, and you could say, oh, I'm doing well, but you didn't get his. Under grace, it's an act of a believing sinner accepting as a gift a righteousness which God has approved, and his name is the Lord Jesus.

So when Paul quotes this verse, he quotes a part out of Leviticus 18.5, the man that does them shall live in them. You shall keep my statutes and my judgments by which any man live if he does them, I am the Lord. So it's interesting that when you get to Paul's epistles in Romans 10, he throws some light on this verse and he quotes, for Moses writes that the man who practices righteousness which is based on the law shall live by that righteousness. So once you decide, I'm gonna get this rule, these bunches of laws, and that's what I'm gonna do, then you better not break one.

And you better be able to live up to all of them 24-7. So to live by them, all the things that are written in the book of the law, is in, again, it's in the middle of the voice. Better get busy. Better get really busy. The one performing the works is intensely involved in the action. Why? because a law system requires intense involvement. There isn't any rest. So, let me try to catch up here.

So what does it mean that the law is not a faith? The intense involvement that I have, would have under a law system, would I ever think that I had done enough? Never. Because the subject, you, is expecting these results that you're never going to get.

I'm expecting to be more righteous before God. You know the saying today, we say, how's that working out for you? It's not. I'm expecting to be more acceptable to God if I go this way. Or I'm expecting to be more pleasing to Him. Or I'm expecting to enjoy the Christian life. How come I'm not? and might be because you're trying to live under a law system. So, no matter how hard a person tries to perform, the results will never get you the righteousness or life. It gets you only death, only separation from God. That's why the law is not a faith.

Romans 7.10 says, And this commandment, and this is Paul struggling under a lost system as a really bright Pharisee who's saved by grace, who understands identification, but he's still going to do it out of his own energy. And this commandment, which was a result in life, proved to result in death for me. He's trying to do it himself. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, it deceived me And through it, it killed me. In other words, it separated me from God. It didn't do the purpose I was thinking it was gonna do. So then he says, the law is holy and it's righteous, and the commandment is holy and righteous, but I'm not. So, expanded translation.

The law is not a faith, but the one who has done them shall live in them. Boy, if there's any freedom that the Spirit of God has given us, it's freedom from the law. We talk a lot about being free from sin. Freedom from the law is every bit as great a freedom as there is being free from the sin. Because the law causes us to sin. It's the impetus for sin. It's like throwing gasoline on a fire trying to put it out. Can't do it.

So I'm gonna close with, again, a repeat of Galatians 2.20.

I have been crucified with Christ. I was baptized into Christ's death, and when he died, so did I. I was separated. But it's no longer I who live. From God's perspective, it is no longer Adam, who is a responsible man before God. He was tried and convicted and crucified. But Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, my walking around everyday flesh, how do I live? I live by faith in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the focus of every minute of every day, who loved me and gave himself for me. So let's close. Father. how we pray that we would enter more fully into the grace that you provided for us, that we would increasingly live by the grace and knowledge and rest by faith in your son, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his precious name, amen.